Keith will also look at the funnier side of Irish Culture – the craic (fun), from shamrocks to shillelagh. So join Keith and visit a land of saints and scholars and find out how the Irish influenced Australia and how the two countries are inherently linked.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Our next family history meeting is on Saturday 2 November.The 11am session will be in the research rooms and is titled: Where will I find...??

After a break for lunch we will reconvene at 2pm.

The 2pm session will be the General Meeting followed by guest speaker Greg de Moore with Tom Wills: an Australian story.
Greg de Moore is a psychiatrist at Sydney's Westmead Hospital.

Greg's book. Tom Wills: first wild man of Australian sport, is the bittersweet story of Thomas Wentworth Wills who became the first captain and coach of the famous aboriginal cricket team that later toured England, and was the founder of the Melbourne Football Club (AFL).
This book has been short-listed for numerous awards, including the National Biography Award.

The afternoon meeting will be held in the Gordon Library meeting rooms.
The speaker will be followed by afternoon tea.
Visitors are most welcome.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The guest speaker, Leonard Janiszewski, gave an enthralling lecture on the history of milk bars in Australia at our General Meeting last Saturday.

Leonard Janiszewski shares his stories

Leonard illustrated his talk with an amazing set of historical images of milk bars and cafes from Australia and abroad

Our wonderful catering team lead by Jill Nicholson prepared an afternoon tea in keeping with the theme of the talk. There were lots of "Do you remembers?" and "Do they taste the sames?" overheard in conversations over tea.

The mini hamburgers were a big hit.

Thank you to Beverley Dunstan for her efforts in procuring such an interesting speaker for us.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

As there are copyright restrictions on the Treasures from Trove found this morning an image of the resources found will not be pasted here.Before copying photos from Trove or anywhere one should check on their copyright status.The Trove search this morning for Turramurra October returned two photographs from TV Times issue 6 October 1962. On checking this copyright notice was found:
Copyright status: Taken by Australian Photographic Agency for account: TV Times 621536. Reproduction for purposes other than private study or research will require permission.

Another photo with similar copyright restrictions shows Frank Partridge VC, BP Pick-a-Box champion and just married, with his nursing sister wife Barbara Dunlop, in their Turramurra house. The photo can be viewed online here : http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=91228.Sadly Frank and Barbara's marriage was short as Frank was killed in an accident in 1964.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

It is an absolute delight to work with the members who have attended our first two Technology Special Interest Group meetings. Their thirst for learning about technology and their enthusiasm is infectious.

For our second meeting we met with members of the Mac Special Interest Group with our main topic of discussion being Tech Gadgets. We endeavoured to look at and discuss a range of tech gadgets but our discussions often meandered to other Tech subjects. We agreed that these diversions were good because they discussed items of interest to those in attendance.As promised I am circulating some notes with tips, resources and links discussed at our meeting last week. These items may be of interest to other members who could not join us. All members are welcome to join us for our monthly meeting on the second Thursday at 1:30pm in the Society rooms.

We looked at gadgets in a number of categories and discussed how we use them:

Cameras Members use these types of cameras for taking photos of people, headstones and artifacts. They are also used to photograph documents and books in repositories.

Point and Shoot - Advantages - light, easy to use, idiot proof, and many have image stabilisers

Camcorder

SLR - Heavy and cumbersome but with great image quality

4/3 - A bit smaller than an SLR, has good image quality.

TIP: When purchasing cameras buy one which allows use of the Macro feature (super close up for small items) without a flash.

Phones and Accessories

Members wanted to know what differentiates a smartphone from a tablet.Phones have screens up to about 5 inches in size. Tablets have screens from 7 inches up in size.Tablets and phones can be used for similar functions although size will influence how easy it is to use them.

Members suggested that a free Mirror app and a free Torch app are useful additions to one's collection of apps.

Battery extenders, available for iPhones and Androids help you use your device longer and extend the time until you have to connect to your battery charger.

The Camscanner app (for iDevice or Android) enables one to scan images to one's phone or tablet and was highly recommended. https://www.camscanner.net/

Never pay full price for a iTunes Card. Jackie suggests using giftcardsonsale.com.au to search for bargain iTunes cards.

Tablets

If you want to get the maximum life out of your tablet get biggest capacity you can afford when you buy a new one.

Printers

Members discussed the pros and cons of using non-branded ink cartridges. The Kiosk outside Kmart in Hornsby has good prices on cartridges and is prepared to give a discount when asked.

Recording Devices

We looked at two small battery operated recorders for interviewing relatives or recording talks (but ask the presenter's permission first). A tablet or phone's recording app can be used for this purpose or one can record into the Evernote app. http://evernote.com

ScannersWe discussed the various types of scanners: Flatbed, Sheet feed, Wand, Flip-Pal, Slide Scanners and their uses for various purposes. Those who had used the Flip-Pal mibile scanner sang it's praises. members were reminded that the Society has a Flip-Pal. /http://flip-pal.com/

Storage DevicesVarious storage devices were discussed with members being reminded about the frailty of USB sticks. The purchase of a portable hard drive was recommended as a good investment. This blog post from James Tanner was mentioned as suggested reading for those wanting to get value for money.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Trove comes good again.
Ku-ring-gai Historical Society is undertaking a large WWI project: to identify and write biographies of all the soldiers on memorials in the Ku-ring-gai area, and others with strong wartime links to the area that may have been missed off memorials.

Some of the memorials aren't easy to find or to visit as they are in private clubs or even from defunct clubs.

Most of the memorials only give initials and these can at times be very difficult to identify with certainty.

So, off to Trove and look at this goldmine:
An article about the effect of the Great War on golf clubs, in particular a local club, Killara.

The article is really interesting in itself but provided us with full names, ranks and battalions (in most cases) of the men on the Killara Golf Club memorial.

Scroll down and look at the names.
Do you know any of them?
Are you related?
Do you have any photos you would be prepared to share with us?
Perhaps you would like to join our writer's group?

Monday, October 7, 2013

Special Interest Groups have really taken off in our Society.
They have increased the numbers of members and non-members alike joining in Society activities and using the wonderful resources available in our research rooms. Friendships have been formed and brick walls broken down.

This week is particularly busy:
The Mac group usually meet on the first Monday of each month but as it is a public holiday this month have decided to join with the fledgling Technology group for a gadget day.
This meeting will be on Thursday 10 October at 1.30pm in the rooms.
Come along and see who has the most gadgets and all the amazing things ways they can help your research, or just be fun!

The Irish group meet on the second Fridays and are never short on topics and stories to share. There are always brick walls to chip away at and new resources to help.
This meeting will be on Friday 11 October at 1.30pm.

The German group meet on the second Mondays. They are always well attended and attendees are active in finding new websites, books and resources to further their research.
There meeting this month is on Monday 14 October at 1.30pm.

Soon there will be a New Zealand special interest group. If you are interest in this one, please email your details to kkhs@khs.org.au to be passed on to the co-ordinator.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

“Story-telling: Disinterring Early Convict Settlers of the Hawkesbury”.

Speaker: Louise Wilsonwho was the winner of the Alexander Henderson Award 2012, for her family history book 'Southwark Luck - the story of Charles Homer Martin, Ann Forrester and their children'.
Her books include “Robert Forrester – First Fleeter”,
“Paul Bushell – Second Fleeter” and
“Southwark Luck”.